Lunch Notes
by HeadGirl07
Summary: Hermione comes home to find a grumpy Ron at the table doing paperwork. She thinks up something to improve his day. May possibly add chapters.
1. To Mr Grumpy

Hermione opened the door. Inside, she found a weary Ron, head bobbing at the table. Paperwork lay uncompleted in front of him. She came over to peer over Ron's shoulder. His head kept going up and down every time he took a breath. Hermione sighed. It had been awhile since they spent any time together. Work had kept them apart, and if it wasn't work then it was the kids. Both were finally at Hogwarts, not here to bother them. She kissed him on the cheek. _He works so hard…_

"Ron," she said as she shook his arm. "Ron, wake up. I don't want your drool to ruin all that work."

He awoke with a start. "That's not funny, Hermione." He rubbed his eyes and looked around. "What time is it?"

"Time to go to sleep."

"You're just rolling them out today, aren't you?"

"Um, I love you too?" She kissed him again. "So, are you coming upstairs, Mr. Grumpy?"

"I have to finish this first." Over half the table was covered in papers. "I'll be up there in a bit." It didn't seem like that to Hermione.

"Alright then, goodnight."

"Goodnight." He turned his head back to the pile in front of him and took the next paper from the stack. Hermione walked upstairs, glad to reach the comfort of the bed. She was off tomorrow, unlike Ron. It wouldn't matter if she woke up late.

*~*~*~*~*

Regardless, she still woke up early, despite being off. She couldn't go back to sleep and wandered downstairs. It was around four when she looked at the clock. She knew Ron would wake up at about five. Hermione made her way to the kitchen and decided to have an early breakfast. She took some orange juice from the fridge and poured herself a glass. Thinking about what to make, her eyes fell on the pancake mix. _Sure, why not?_

She succeeded not burning them on the second attempt. Proud that she had some cooking ability, Hermione set the plate of pancakes on the table, next to her orange juice. There was a tall stack of them, just waiting to topple over at the first drip of maple syrup. She took a seat and quietly surveyed the tower. _I think I made too much batter…_She knew she couldn't finish all of them. Hermione sat thoughtfully. _I don't think Ron eats breakfast. He's so sleepy. I don't want to wake him. He would have finished them all if I didn't stop him. _She got up to get a separate plate and as Hermione sat back down she took the first two pancakes and placed them on top. Taking the syrup, she drizzled it on in a swirl, making the pancakes appear like a large snail shell. After finishing her breakfast, she looked over once again to the remaining stack of pancakes. She wasn't exactly keen on putting them back in the fridge and she didn't want them to go to waste either. _Maybe I can make something out of them. _With a spur of the moment idea in her head, Hermione went over to the drawer where she kept a bundle of cookie cutters. Smiling, she continued to get out some eggs and sausage to fry and soon prepared her pan for another cooking scheme, hoping that she could make them all before her husband woke up.

When completed with her task, she sighed in content. Hermione placed her creations in a brown paper bag along with other articles of food, plus napkins, and left it in the fridge for Ron to discover. Leaving a piece of paper behind in the bag, she went back up stairs, after cleaning the pans, plates, forks, etc., deciding that she wanted to sleep in just a bit more.

*~*~*~*~*

Ron woke up at five thirty. Cursing his way out of bed, he took a quick shower, dressed in a hurried fashion, and kissed his wife gently on the cheek, who appeared to be having a pleasant dream. At that point in time he envied her as he raced out of the bedroom. Wishing that he could at least have some coffee even though he no longer had the time for it, Ron opened the fridge, hoping that he could bring something to snack on before he went to work. Starving, as he did not eat dinner the night before because of that dreadful paperwork, he found a granola bar inside which he took and rushed over to his briefcase to make sure all of those stacks of paper were stuffed in neatly enough that none would fall out. He was about to apparate when he remembered seeing something in the fridge. He went back in the kitchen, risking being late, and opened the fridge door again. Ron found a brown paper bag on the middle shelf with writing that said "Ron's Lunch" in Hermione's neat script. He found it very odd. Nevertheless, he took it and went on his way.

*~*~*~*~*

_That granola bar seems so long ago, _thought Ron as he pulled out the brown paper bag. He examined it more closely, staring at Hermione's handwriting. After a minute of scrutiny, he took it with him to the tables where everyone was happily enjoying their lunch break.

As he sat down, his coworkers stared at the paper bag. "Didn't know you made your own lunch."

"Course he didn't make his own lunch, Jared. Does that look like his scrawl on the bag?" With that, they laughed and Ron proceeded to open his lunch.

"Whose lovely handwriting is that, Weasley?" asked Darrell.

"My wife's"

"Since when did your wife pack you lunch?"

"She's never made it before." He was about to stick his hand in the bag when Jared looked at him seriously.

"Better be careful then. Never know, it could blow up any minute. I remember one time ---"

"Just go ahead and eat it Ron. Jared has a billion stories where his wife did something terrible to him and look at the guy. Still married. Still claims he loves her."

Jared gave a pout. "Now don't you go on about my stories. What about yours? You say the same thing about your wife."

"I don't repeat stories until people have memorized them."

Oscar, an older gentleman sitting next to Ron muttered to him, "Just goes to show who the old coots are at this table. Go on, eat your lunch."

Smiling, Ron finally plunged his hand in the bag and took out a bundle of napkins. A note fell out. He didn't notice until Oscar pointed it out to him. Surprised, he read the piece of paper.

_Hey Mr. Grumpy,_

_I was thinking of you while I had breakfast downstairs and I thought you probably don't eat any in the morning. I doubt you even ate dinner before you went to sleep; you had so many papers on the table. Also, you did not react very nicely, or at least did not show your usual smile, when I came home. You seemed… grumpy. So anyway, to be more to the point, I felt you needed something to take your mind off things. I thought that, along with no breakfast, you would probably get some fries and chips and soda, and eat that for your lunch. Not that that's an extremely terrible lunch, as you could also skip lunch as well, but I suspect you have that close to everyday so I thought I'd change that. I apologize in advance if your lunch seems below your usual standard, but I sincerely hope that you might come home feeling a little better today. _

_Love, Hermione_

Ron couldn't believe that she could fit that much writing on the small piece of paper. Nor could he believe that she woke up earlier than him and thought to pack him a lunch when she looked so peaceful upstairs before he left. Then again, this was Hermione. His smile only widened at the thought of her trying to pack his lunch. _Sweet of her._ He finally reached in again to pull out whatever was in the bag. Finding something to take out, he tugged it loose from under a heavy water bottle and looked at it. Wrapped in foil, his coworkers watched as though Ron was giving a demonstration on how to unwrap things, and looked in wonder.

Inside were… pancakes? Hermione made him pancakes? No, it smelled like more than pancakes to him. Eggs? Sausage? He continued to look at the package and, realizing it was a somewhat large package, realized that they were many small pancakes… But between the pancakes were the eggs and sausage. He could smell maple syrup coming from the food. On closer inspection, (If he was to be honest, he never really inspected his food. He simply ate it. So for him this was out of the ordinary, studying his food.) he looked at them and saw that they were many small pancake sandwiches that were in the shapes of snitches and broomsticks… like the cookie cutters in the drawers they rarely used. Now eager to see the rest of his lunch, he took out the water bottle. It was not filled with water. It was filled with orange juice. The last thing he pulled out of the bag was a cup of strawberry yogurt plus spoon. He grinned childishly at his breakfast-like lunch.

"What in the world?" Darrell took in a whiff. "That smells good! Nothing exploded I hope." He glanced at Jared. "I think we're safe from harm."

"Wish my wife made me lunch," muttered Jared.

"Yeah," said Ron happily as he tucked in, starting to stuff his face with the pancake sandwiches. "I love my wife."

* * *

AN: I got sidetracked from my other stories so I apologize if you're waiting for me to update those. Review please, and thanks again for reading!


	2. Returning the Favor

A few weeks after his homemade lunch, Ron saw a similar sight to what his wife experienced. This time, Hermione walked into the room with a haggard look. Dark circles developing under her eyes, he caught the notion that she hadn't taken a nap in the last week, dead on her feet so to speak. The last time he saw her like this was when she worked on Hagrid's case in their third year, with all that time-turner nonsense. _Still thinks she can do it all…_

"Hey you," he said. She didn't reply but came over and hugged him tight, arms around his torso. He put his hand on her head and held her close. Kissing her lightly, Ron asked her, "What have you been doing? You look worse than me a few weeks ago. Hard case?"

"I'm just so sick of these inconsiderate, unfeeling, illogical people," she murmured to him. "Can't see any reason…" She faltered. Ron saw her lids drooping. He could feel her burn up under his hand. Ron wasn't sure if it was a fever or if it was because she sat under a desk lamp for most of the day… and night.

"Are you okay? Do you need some pepperup potion?" Ron made to get up to the kitchen, concerned.

"No, I'm fine. Just need a nap. If I have a hope in this case I need to…" Hermione started to drift off in her unintelligible big-word vocabulary, swaying slightly, turning to take the stairs.

"Hermione, maybe you should sit fir---" Before he could finish and she could walk more than a couple feet away, her legs started to give out. Jerking to catch her, he found Hermione in his arms, drifting in and out of consciousness. Her body drooped like a blanket over the side of a couch. He was wrong. She wasn't close to this bad in their third year. She hadn't started fainting then. Falling asleep, but not fainting. _She's so concerned for everyone else she doesn't take care of herself._

"Ron, I can walk, I'm fine. Put me down… really…" Without a sound and trying not to jostle her, he lifted Hermione in one motion. Even Ron knew she was in no condition to debate. He carried her up the stairs. She protested no longer and was fast asleep before he reached their bedroom.

"Goodnight," he whispered. Hermione turned over. Ron tucked her in, running his fingers through her hair before he left the room. Ron walked over to the phone, calling her office at work. He didn't want someone shadowing her in case she fell. She needed, at the very least, a day off. _Going to kill herself before she gets the chance to help someone._ Once her boss allowed it, he hung up the phone, thinking of how panicked she would be in the morning. He smiled. _You know, she might not be up until noon if she keeps sleeping like that. _He went to the kitchen.

An hour later, he joined her in bed and rolled to face her. She slept like an angel but her face bunched up periodically, her mind wandering. Ron looked at her with a sigh. _You can take the book out of her hands but not her from the book… Of course, if it were any other way, it wouldn't be Hermione. _He smiled, thinking of all the times they argued, all the times they insulted each other, every time he made her cry, and every time she made him furious. It was worth it, just to see her next to him. _I don't deserve this…_

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hermione twisted and stretched. Yawning widely, she felt the sun on the left side of her face._ Sun? _She looked out the window, past the curtains to the outside. Her head swiveled automatically to the clock. _Eleven thirty?! _She jumped to her feet, almost blowing away a piece of paper on the bedside table. On it was Ron's handwriting. Gingerly, for she still was not completely awake, she read what it said:

_Morning Mrs. Weasley,_

_I almost wrote "Mrs. Sleepy" but I think Mr. Grumpy would keep his wife Mrs. Sleepy awake so… Okay, that sounds really dumb but to the point so you can stop fretting. I called your boss and you're off from work today. He agreed with me too. He said you work too late for too little pay. If I heard right, I think you're getting a raise. But you don't care about that stuff; you just like helping people to the point where you can't help yourself. So, enjoy your day. Take a rest. I'll be home before you know it. I love you Hermione. You already knew that. Otherwise, you wouldn't be Hermione, cleverest witch of the age. _

_- Your Very Lucky Husband_

_P.S. – Look in the kitchen._

_Look in the kitchen? _she thought. _I hope he hasn't burned the house. I'm not great at cooking but Ron… _She went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. Brushing her teeth thoroughly and taking a shower, she went downstairs to see what Ron could have possibly done to the kitchen.

Nothing appeared to be out of place. It looked normal. Hermione stood there. _Maybe he wanted me to look for something? _She checked the counters, cupboards, and shelves to no avail. _I must be thinking about it too hard. I suppose I'll go fix myself a sandwich…_ She walked over to the fridge and opened the large, white door. Sitting there was a brown paper bag with her name on it in Ron's untidy scrawl. She laughed. _Oh, my. What has he made for breakfast? Or would it be lunch?_

Taking the bag out carefully, she placed it on the table, the same one where she made those pancake sandwiches. She ripped it open to expose the contents. Inside she found a bagel, with an apple slice, cheese, and cinnamon on top. In another handwritten message it said to, "Heat it up in the oven, to melt the cheese. I thought I was going to burn it so… I didn't want you to worry about fixing the kitchen today." There was also a bottle of orange juice, just like last time, and strawberry yogurt, her favorite. Hermione paused while in midstride towards the oven. _Why do I need the oven? This is quite small, and I don't have to warm it for long. Couldn't I just use my wand? _But Hermione kept walking on to the oven regardless. She placed the bagel in plus all the toppings. But it wouldn't go inside. _What's in there? _Setting down her lunch, she stuck her hand in and pulled out a tray. When she looked at it again, she realized it wasn't a tray but a muffin tin. Inside were small blueberry and chocolate chip muffins, all slightly burnt. Hermione chuckled. _I was wondering where those were. Maybe he was hiding them. Honestly Ron... _She thought of her, well, thoughtful husband, though she would probably make a list of things she couldn't find, mainly food items to ask about later.

She took everything to the table. Once her bagel was warmed up, she took that out too. She finished it and sighed in contentment. But she couldn't sit idle for long. Already her mind was on work. When she realized this, she stopped and thought of all the trouble Ron went through to give her a day off. "I'm off today. I'm not going to think about work." As if in response, she heard someone at the door. They did not ring the doorbell so she didn't answer it, but she went to the sink to wash the dishes. Sooner, rather than later, Hermione went on a cleaning spree for something to do. She couldn't find her book, even though she was sure she put in on the table; she would have to ask Ron about that too.

Finally, with the house clean, she went to the door to see if the person left anything or just figured they came to the wrong house. When she opened it, she found nothing, so she went outside the house and looked at the door. An advertisement was hanging from the knob. She pulled it off and went back inside. It was advertising Chinese food. She grinned. _I think I know what we're having for dinner tonight._

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She ordered a couple of dishes. Hermione didn't really know what to get Ron. She just figured he would end up liking anything placed in front of him. _He's never had Chinese food before. But I guess he didn't need it when his mother was the one cooking. _She sat on the couch waiting for him to come home. The food beat him to it. Hermione wasn't used to delivery either. She didn't know where the place was. It seemed like somewhere out of town. _Besides, _she figured, _it's time to see if muggles can find our house. _Apparently they could since the doorbell rang. She got up and paid the man delivering. Hermione thanked him and went to the kitchen, placing the bag on the table.

She heard a click. Ron walked through the door. "What's that?" he asked. He smelled nothing like it before, but it smelled good.

"Chinese food," she answered. Hermione ran to him, giving a big hug before he could put anything down. She kissed him sweetly on the lips and felt him smile. Then, she felt him push her lightly.

"Hold it, Hermione. Wait until I put this away…" She helped, taking things from his arms to set them on the floor by the door.

Hermione went to go get plates. Ron stopped her then. "Wait."

"Yes?"

"Could we um… I don't know… not eat at the table today? It's too formal."

_That's an odd request. _"Sure Ron. Um…" She wasn't quite sure what to say next. "Well, we have paper plates. Do you want to use those instead?"

"Yeah, if you wouldn't mind."

Hermione started up again, getting paper plates. Ron assisted by retrieving plastic utensils and napkins. He sat on the couch and turned on the radio to listen to what was on.

"Um, Ron?" Timidly, she held up a pair of wooden sticks.

"Hmm?"

"Well, I was thinking… Did you want to learn how to use chopsticks?"

In confusion he stared. "What are chopsticks?"

She smiled and taught him what they were and how to use them. It took him many tries and he was very frustrated at them. Hermione just told him to keep trying and eventually he wasn't dropping the food quite so often.

"We need to order this when the kids are around. This is good stuff," he said. He wrapped his arms around her suddenly, putting the plate on the arm of the couch. "How was your day off?"

"I don't know Ron. It scared me silly when I saw the sun out." She smiled at him. "Thank you for lunch." Snuggling closer, she whispered, "I'm just glad you're home."

"Me too." Ron kissed her on the forehead, then on her cheek. She giggled.

"Just eat, Ron. I know you're hungry."

"How am I supposed to eat when I can't get the food in my mouth? Who uses sticks to eat besides at a campfire? Can't I just skewer them?"

"Do you want me to feed you?"

He looked at her funny. Then he gave her a lopsided grin. "You know, that idea is certainly appealing… I---" Before he could finish, she stuffed a piece of beef in his mouth. He laughed, with the food getting ready to come out.

"Ew Ron. Chew and swallow first!" She was laughing right along with him. Soon enough, both of them got tired and Ron attempted to carry her to bed again. Hermione complained loudly. "Oh, not again. I'm not having you carry me on a full stomach. Come on Ron." She almost skipped upstairs, holding his hand as Ron followed closely behind her. Both got ready for bed.

"I love you."

"I love you too, Hermione." Holding her close, she fell asleep in his arms. He did the same in a minute, snoring loudly. She woke up to his snoring. Hermione kissed him on the nose, making him snort. She laughed again. "Go to sleep Hermione." He smiled and stroked her cheek.

"Yes Mr. Weasley. Or is it Mr. Grumpy now?" He just stroked her face again and she closed her eyes, falling into slumber.

Before she could really dream, one thought formed in her head. _How did I get so lucky?_

_

* * *

_AN: Personally, I think this chapter didn't do the last one justice. However, I felt the need for Ron to do something in return so I kept typing anyway. I wasn't planning on continuing this at all but I might add to it later if I come up with something. I hope you've enjoyed my story. Happy reading! And writing too! :D


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